Ahuvati
by autumnrose2010
Summary: Annie Christopher survived being struck by lightening but was left with total amnesia. With David Hassid's love she struggles to return to normal. The title means 'My Beloved' in Hebrew.
1. Alive

She opened her eyes and couldn't see anything but white. Then she realized that her entire body was covered with a white sheet.

She sat bolt upright and let out a blood-curdling scream. There was no answer, only the echo of her own voice. Looking around, she realized that she was in a small room surrounded by other bodies lying on beds and likewise covered by sheets. She tried to stand and felt incredible pain when one foot touched the floor. Desperately, she grabbed the bed she had been lying on in an attempt to break her fall.

"Easy, easy." She heard voices and felt hands supporting her. She tried to wrench away but couldn't.

"Where am I? What happened?" Her voice shook with fear.

"It's all right," a soothing voice told her. "You were struck by lightning. We thought you were a goner, girl. You almost were."

"Why can't I stand up?"

"You have severe burns on the sole of one foot. That's where the lightening bolt exited your body."

"What is this place? Why am I in here?"

"This is where we keep those whom we believe to be beyond hope. Since you're awake now, we'll transfer you to another section of the hospital as soon as someone gets here with a gurney."

"You mean everyone else in here is dead?" She began to sob.

"There, there." The nurse patted her shoulder. "Here's a gurney now." The nurse helped her onto the gurney and then rolled her to a different room, a public ward with beds lined up against the wall on both sides. The nurse rolled the gurney to an empty bed and helped her onto it. She looked around, terrified. She didn't recognize anyone at all.

After awhile she had visitors, a young Native American nurse and an olive-complected young man with dark brown hair and eyes. The young man's eyes lit up when he saw her.

"Annie!" he exclaimed, rushing to embrace her. Frightened and confused, she pulled away from him.

"What's wrong, Annie?" He looked bewildered and hurt.

"Who are you?" she demanded.

He looked surprised. "You mean you don't recognize me?" he asked softly.

"I've never seen you before in my life."

"Oh, Annie." He looked as if he were about to cry. She felt genuinely sorry for him. The Native American nurse embraced him.

"I think we'd better go now, David," she said softly.


	2. Crazy World

Annie realized that she must be someone very special to the young man. She wondered if he was a relative of hers. Why, oh why, couldn't she remember?

Later a physician arrived to examine her. He looked into her eyes, her ears, down her throat, tested her reflexes, and took a long time examining the wound on the bottom of her foot.

"The skin is severely damaged," he told her. "I'm going to schedule you for a skin graft."

Annie felt a faint sense of fear at the thought of being put to sleep for surgery.

"How much do you remember?" the physician asked.

"I woke up in a room full of dead people. They put me on a bed with wheels and brought me in here. A boy and a girl about my age came to see me. The boy got upset. Is he someone I should know?"

The physician checked her chart quickly. "Do you remember what your name is?"

Annie slowly shook her head.

"Your name is Annie Christopher, and you're an employee of the Global Community. On the day of our Potentate's funeral, you were struck by lightning. We thought that you were dead so we brought you to the morgue here. You gave us quite a fright, young lady." He smiled gently.

"Potentate?"

"His Excellency, Nicolae Carpathia. He was brutally stabbed to death but arose from the dead three days later. Some are claiming that he must be a deity."

Annie slowly shook her head. Even with her profound memory loss, she knew that _that _couldn't be right.

The young man who had previously visited her returned a short time later, alone.

"My name is Annie Christopher," she told him.

"I'm David Hassid," he replied.

"Where's your friend?"

"She's at work right now. Her name is Hannah Paleface, and she's a nurse. She took care of me after I was hurt."

"You were hurt as well?"

"Yes, but not nearly as badly as you were," he said softly.

"They're going to have to do a skin graft on the sole of my foot," Annie told him.

"Ouch." David grimaced in sympathy.

"How do I know you, David?"

His eyes were filled with pain. "We work together in the Global Community, and we're also engaged to be married."

"Oh, my," she said softly. "I had no idea."

"Do you not remember anything at all yet?"

She shook her head. "Only what I've been told since I...woke up. The physician also said something about a...Potentate?...who was killed and arose from the dead three days later."

David nodded solemnly. "Look at my forehead very closely, Annie, and tell me what you see there."

Annie did as he asked and saw what appeared to be a tiny smudge. Upon closer inspection, she realized that it was actually a three-dimensional cross.

"Why, it's a cross! Why is it there?"

"You have one on your forehead as well, Annie, but we can't see our own. We're Christians, Annie. We belong to the one true God, and He put these crosses on our foreheads to identify us as belonging to Him. The Potentate the physician told you about is an evil man, Annie. His name is Nicolae Carpathia, and he's the Antichrist. He seeks to destroy the one true God and all His followers, the true Christians."

"But how can we stop him, David? If he can arise from the dead, he can do anything!"

"We can't stop him, Annie." David smiled sadly. "But the Lord will. Three and a half years from now, He will return to earth and destroy the Antichrist and all the forces of the Evil One."

"But why will He wait three and a half years? Why doesn't He simply return now?"

David smiled and shook his head. "God's ways aren't our ways, Annie. He has a purpose for waiting three and a half years, and we'll understand it someday. Oh, how I wish that Rabbi Tsion Ben Judah were here right now. He could explain it all so much better than I can."

"Who's he?"

"Our spiritual leader. You might say he's the link between God and ourselves until we meet Him personally in heaven. Listen, Annie, we're all going to have to go into hiding soon. Nicolae will soon announce that he's going to require everyone on earth to accept his own identification mark, upon pain of the death penalty. Those of us who already have the mark of the true God on our foreheads won't be able to take it, so Nicolae will declare us all to be under the sentence of death and will hunt down and kill as many of us as he can."

Annie felt as if her head were spinning. Here she was facing surgery, and immediately afterwards she would have to go into hiding with a man whom she couldn't even remember but who claimed to be her fiance. What kind of a crazy world had she awakened to?


	3. Escape Plan

"This will make you feel very drowsy," the physician told Annie as he added something to her IV. Annie felt her apprehension quickly replaced by a feeling of light-headed euphoria. The next thing she was aware of was lying in a different bed with her foot heavily bandaged.

"The surgery went well," the physician told her. "You'll need to keep that foot bandaged until the graft site heals. We should have you up and about on crutches by tomorrow."

Annie spent most of that day lying in bed watching TV while coping with the aftereffects of the anesthesia. She dozed off and on and felt very thirsty at times.

Her heart skipped a beat when she saw David's face. She had come to really look forward to his visits. He was always so kind and attentive, and it was obvious that he really cared for her. Annie was very frustrated that she couldn't remember meeting and falling in love with him and fervently hoped that the memories would return to her eventually.

"How did the surgery go?" he asked, eying her heavily bandaged foot.

"The doctor said it went really well. He said I should be able to walk on crutches by tomorrow."

"I'm glad to hear it," David said, but he didn't sound all that cheerful. "Today Nicolae announced that he is about to introduce his mark of loyalty. My department has been given the responsibility for purchasing the biochip injectors that will be used for application of the mark, and also..." David cleared his throat. "The guillotines to be used to execute those who refuse it."

Despite the lingering aftereffects of the anesthesia, Annie felt a cold chill beginning to creep up her spine. Suddenly a memory came unbeckoned to her mind, one perhaps prompted by something David had said. The French Revolution. She had studied it in school. But that had been a couple hundred years ago, had it not? Surely that scenario wouldn't be repeated yet again...

"What shall we do?" she asked David.

"Nicolae has given us a thirty-day grace period before the deadline to accept the mark has passed," David told her. "That gives us a month to find a way to disappear."

Annie felt immensely better. A thirty day reprieve. Certainly her foot would be much better by then.

The next day Annie began hobbling around on crutches and found that as long as her injured foot didn't touch the ground, she felt almost normal again. That evening she walked proudly back and forth in front of David when he came to visit her. He grinned and applauded her.

Annie was discharged from the hospital the following day and told that she could report for work whenever she felt that she was ready. David came to escort her to her department. Waiting to meet her she saw a middle-aged Caucasian man wearing a cowboy hat, a slightly younger Middle Eastern man, and the young Native American woman who had accompanied David when he had visited Annie for the first time.

"Annie, meet Mac McCullum and Abdullah Smith, and you remember Hannah Paleface," David said.

"How do you do." Annie shook hands with each of them.

"It's so good to see that you're doing better," Mac told her.

"Thank you," she said.

"We've come up with a plan..." David began, but Hannah gave him a look of chastisement. "That is, _Hannah _has come up with a plan, and we've all agreed to it, for how we'll accomplish our disappearance when it becomes necessary. We'll crash an airplane in the middle of the ocean with all of us believed to be on board, and in the meantime we'll find a way to sneak out of here and meet up with our friends who are in hiding."

"So as we'll be assumed dead, no one will search for us," Annie said.

"Exactly."

"I like it," Annie told him. Three and a half years seemed to her to be a very long time to have to live in hiding, but it sure sounded better than the alternative.


	4. Flight To Israel

"This is my new employee, Chang Wong," David told Annie. Chang was an Asian boy who looked to be about seventeen. Annie thought that it was unusual for someone that young to be working in David's department, but that wasn't the most unusual thing about him. Annie saw that Chang had the same cross on his forehead that David had, but beside the cross was another mark, one that she'd never seen before.

David saw the look of confusion on Annie's face and quickly explained.

"Chang's a believer just like us," he told Annie. "His father forced him to take the mark of the beast. He had Chang anesthetized, and he was given the mark while he was still unconscious. Since he has it, he'll be able to take over my job, using his superior technological skills to spy on Nicolae and his followers and thwart their plans whenever possible."

Nicolae planned to return to Jerusalem, the city in which he had been assassinated, and defile the temple by riding a pig into it. He also planned to set up a mark application site there, and the airplane that would supposedly carry Mac, Abdullah, David, Annie, and Hannah was loaded down with guillotines, biochip injectors, and an enormous live pig. The tribulation force members had deliberately overloaded it so that there would be a logical reason for it to go down over the ocean. In fact, it would be remotely controlled by Mac, who would program it to go down at the appropriate time. In the meantime, Mac, Abdullah, David, Annie, and Hannah would take a second airplane to Mitzpe Ramon in southern Israel, where they planned to meet up with the rest of the tribulation force to prepare for the modern-day exodus of believers from Jerusalem to Petra.

David had stressed to Annie how important it was that their disappearance appear to be entirely unplanned so that nobody would suspect that they were really running away from having to take the mark. She made a dentist appointment for the week the five were scheduled to return and dropped off a couple of uniforms at the dry cleaners, scheduling to pick them up upon her return. She also left leftovers in her refrigerator and unopened mail on her kitchen table.

"It's just a little bit exciting, isn't it?" she said to David as they were boarding the airplane. "Like setting out on a whole new adventure."

"It's that, all right," David agreed with a chuckle. "For me, it'll be a relief to be out from under the constant fear that my cover will be blown."

"Chang will have to worry about that now," Annie reminded him.

"He's a tough kid, and very bright," David told her. "I have no doubt he'll be able to handle whatever comes his way."

On the way to Mitzpe Ramon, Annie got to know Hannah better.

"I grew up on a Cherokee reservation," Hannah told her. "My family didn't go to church, but a lot of my friends did. One of my teachers was a Christian, and she used to talk to me about Jesus a lot. I didn't pay it much attention. Then when the disappearances happened, all that came back to me, and I wished like anything that I had believed her."

"I first decided that I wanted to be a nurse when I worked as a veterinary assistant when I was in high school," Hannah continued. "I was trained in how to inject biochips into animals so that if they went missing they could be more easily found. I'm supposedly traveling to Jerusalem to help train new employees on the application of the mark of the beast."

"I have only the vaguest of memories of my family," Annie said. "I remember what my parents looked like, and that I had two younger brothers. I know that they're no longer alive, but I can't remember what happened to them." What Annie couldn't tell Hannah was that she had a real fear of remembering what had happened to her family. If it turned out that they had died very gruesome or painful deaths, she didn't think that she'd be able to take it.

At last the airplane was landing at the airport in Mitzpe Ramon.

"Leah Rose is here to pick us up in a van," David told Annie. "We'll have to hide in the floorboard so that we won't arouse suspicion."

"I feel like an illegal alien trying to sneak across the border," Annie giggled.

"Get used to it," David told her. "Sneaking and hiding are going to be a way of life for us for awhile."


	5. Mitzpe Ramon

Leah Rose drove the van, and beside her sat David with his solar-powered laptop. Behind them sat Hannah and Annie, and in the third seat, Mac and Abdullah.

On the van's radio, Security and Intelligence Director Suhail Akbar was speaking.

"We have so far been unable to confirm the evidence of any human remains," he said, referring to the downed airplane that had supposedly carried Annie and the others. "Of course, it's possible that they were vaporized upon impact. It would have been instantaneous and painless. Once we have confirmed their deaths, we will pray to the risen potentate for their eternal souls and extend our sympathies to their friends and family." _How long before they realize that they will never find enough evidence to confirm the deaths, _Annie wondered.

Leah stopped the van beside the airstrip just outside Mitzpe Ramon, where Rayford Steele and Albie waited for them. David introduced Hannah and Annie to the two pilots, and they spent a few minutes getting acquainted while David sat his computer up in Rayford's quarters and touched base with Chang.

The plan was for David to arrive at Petra before anyone else to set up a tech center, while Leah and Hannah set up a first-aid center at the airstrip. As Annie was more familiar with David than she was with any of the others and therefore felt more comfortable around him, she begged to accompany him, but he objected.

"I'm afraid it wouldn't be safe for you, my love. There may still be armed GC personnel there, and besides, your help is needed here."

"But I'm not trained as a nurse..."

"There are plenty of other ways you can help. Please believe me, Annie, it isn't that I don't want you along. On the contrary, I love your company, but I'd just be too concerned for your safety."

"Well...all right. Please be careful, David."

"Of course I will be." He lifted her chin and kissed her lips. For her it was just as if it were the first time they had ever kissed. His lips were warm and inviting.

She watched him climb aboard the helicopter with Albie, watched it take off, and waved to him until the helicopter was only a tiny dot in the sky.

* * *

Annie soon found that David had been right. Processing arriving believers on their way to Petra was an overwhelming job, and her help was indeed needed.

She was helping to stock medical supplies when she heard Hannah call to her.

"Rayford just got a suspicious-sounding phone call from David in Petra, and he's going to investigate it. Mac, Leah, and I are going along as well. You're welcome to come along too if you want."

"What do you mean by a suspicious-sounding phone call?" Annie asked.

"The two of them were talking, and then Rayford heard what sounded like gunshots, then nothing at all."

Annie felt a sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach. In the time that they had been together since she had awakened, she had grown to feel very attached to David and couldn't bear the thought of anything happening to him.

The helicopter passed over some picturesque Israeli scenery on the way to Petra, but Annie barely noticed it. Her heart pounded with trepidation, and to her it seemed as if the helicopter weren't moving fast enough.

_Dear God, please let David be all right! _she prayed silently.


	6. Ahuvati

As the rocky crags of Petra came into view, Annie felt a sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach. There was evidence that a struggle had taken place, but David was nowhere to be seen. By the time the helicopter had landed, she wasn't at all sure that she wanted to know what had happened.

Annie was the last one to climb out of the helicopter. She heard the others talking in low voices, searching for clues as to what had happened to David, but she wasn't really paying attention. Her heart was heavy with sorrow. All she could think about was the love in David's eyes when he looked at her, the gentleness in his voice when he spoke to her. Without David she felt utterly alone, vulnerable, helpless.

Annie didn't even realize that she had wondered away from the others until she suddenly looked up and saw that her surroundings were totally unfamiliar. Icy fingers of fear began to caress her spine as she frantically searched for the way back to where the helicopter had landed. What if it grew dark before she found the others? Suddenly unable to hold it in any longer, she sat down on a large rock and wept.

Suddenly she felt a gentle hand on her shoulder. "What are you doing here, Annie?"

As she turned to look into David's dark eyes, she felt her heart leap with joy.

"David!" Instantly her arms were around his neck hugging him tightly. He laughed joyously as he hugged her back.

"What happened, David? Rayford said he heard gun shots, then nothing at all. Oh, David, we were so afraid..."

"Two armed GC officers found me and shot at me. They almost hit me. I had to dash into a nearby cave right away to hide from them. By the time they were gone, I couldn't find the phone that I had dropped, so I couldn't call and tell you that I was all right."

Annie sobbed with relief. David held her and rubbed her back.

"I want to marry you, _ahuvati, _as soon as possible. I didn't realize just how much I really loved you until I almost lost you. And now that I've come close to death as well...I want you, Annie. I need you. If we don't do it now, we may never have another chance."

* * *

David and Annie were married at Petra. Rayford, Albie, Abdullah, and Hannah all attended the ceremony. As she repeated her vows with the man she had so recently gotten reacquainted with, she knew that she meant them with all of her heart. Since reawakening after her accident, Annie had come to feel that she had a new lease on life, and she knew without a doubt that David was the man that she wanted to share it with.

As they were pronounced husband and wife, Annie felt that she had never been happier in her life.

"I wish that I could take you on a real honeymoon," David said to Annie when the ceremony was over.

"That's perfectly all right," Annie said airily. "There will be plenty of time for a honeymoon after the glorious appearing."

That night David smiled shyly at her as he came to her in their new sleeping quarters, and she smiled back just as shyly.

"Are you nervous?" he asked.

"A little bit," she admitted.

"Don't be." He came to her and began to gently kiss her, and she felt her nervousness quickly transformed into desire. They began to touch one another, hesitantly at first, then more boldly, curiously exploring one another's bodies, eagerly experiencing all the new sensations that had been forbidden to them before.

"_Ahuvati," _David whispered as he helped her to remove first her own clothing, and then his own. He gazed in wonder at her unclothed body, and she at his. As they finally came together as husband and wife for the first time, Annie finally understood what it meant to be joined together with another as one flesh, to truly belong to another, heart, body, and soul.


	7. Miraculous Deliverance

Annie watched in awe as helicopter load after helicopter load of people were airlifted into Petra.

"These are new believers who are arriving from Masada," David told her. "Micah, formerly known as Dr. Chaim Rosenzweig, is their leader. They have been promised safety here."

"But there are so many of them!" Annie exclaimed. "How will there be room for them all?"

"God will provide," David assured her.

The throngs of new arrivals seemed jubilant at first, but their happiness soon turned to anxiety, and Annie quickly realized why. Three huge clouds of dust moved toward them.

"GC ground forces," David said dolefully.

"But I thought everyone was safe here!" Annie cried.

"There are still some outside the entrance," David told her. "We may have to take up arms in their defense."

'Oh, no, David," Annie groaned. The thought that her new husband may have narrowly escaped death once only to meet it shortly afterwards in battle was horrific to her.

Suddenly a tall man appeared at the front of the crowd of people who were still pouring into Petra. He wore a white robe and seemed to 'glow.' Annie couldn't think of any other way to describe it.

"An angel," she whispered to David. He nodded.

The angel began to speak. "Fear not, children of Abraham. God has heard you and will come and save you." As the angel began to quote passages of comfort from the Bible, he began to walk amongst the masses of people he'd come to save.

"Fear not! Fear not!" he began to chant. He turned to face the pursuing armies, head held high in defiance, and the crowd assumed his pose.

Annie suddenly heard a deafening noise. It was by far the loudest sound she'd ever heard in her life. Scared out of her wits, she dropped to the ground. David did the same, shielding his wife's body with his own the best he could.

David, Annie, and the others all covered their ears with their hands as the air suddenly became very smoky and the ground began to rock so violently that Annie almost became seasick.

In minutes, the air was clear and the ground unmoving once more. Annie and the others lifted their heads and gazed about themselves in wonder. The advancing GC troops had disappeared. The ground had literally opened and swallowed them up.

"Oh, David..." Annie felt as if she might pass out.

"It's all right, sweetheart. Everything's all right now. It's all over with," David comforted his wife.

"Let us all give thanks to the Lord for his deliverance," boomed Micah's voice. The mass of people did so, humbly and in deep gratitude.

* * *

That evening, a great flock of quails flew into Petra, and the residents roasted them over open fires.

"It's almost like a huge camp-out, isn't it?" Annie remarked.

David laughed. "I suppose this makes up for never having been in the Boy Scouts," he joked.

"It tastes rather like chicken breast, doesn't it?" Annie hadn't tasted quail since childhood.

"It's quite tasty," David agreed.

"You know, it's amazing to me how swiftly life seems to have returned to normal after what happened earlier," said Annie. She couldn't stop thinking of all those men who'd been alive only a few hours earlier yet now were buried deep beneath the earth's surface. They'd been evil men intent on killing innocent people, it was true, yet when Annie thought of their present situation, she couldn't help but shudder.

David seemed to read her mind. "They made their choice, Annie," he said, gently touching her arm.

"I know, and yet..." Annie hugged herself, as the air suddenly felt chilly. "Will you love me again tonight, David? I really need to feel close to you."

"Of course I will, my love." He touched her cheek ever so softly, and she suddenly felt much better.


	8. Dr Ben-Judah's Prediction

The following morning, Annie and David awakened to find the ground covered by small, round, white flakes.

"What are they?" asked Annie.

David picked one up, and it crumbled in his hand. Quickly he sniffed it. "It smells like honey. I think it's food, Annie!" he cried excitedly.

Annie grabbed a basket and began to fill it with the small, round flakes. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw that their neighbors were doing the same.

"Take and eat of the food and drink of the water which God has provided for his children," shouted Micah. He raised his arms, and springs of water began to flow from rocks all over Petra.

* * *

David, Annie, and the others were all gathered together awaiting the arrival of Dr. Tsion Ben-Judah. David had told Annie so many wonderful things about him that she simply couldn't wait to see him in person.

"Look, Annie! Here he comes!" David shouted excitedly, pointing to the helicopter which had just now come into view.

Everyone watched as the helicopter landed near where Micah was standing and a slight, swarthy, bearded man got out. Micah introduced him as Dr. Tsion Ben-Judah, and the crowd roared with applause. Dr. Ben-Judah quieted the crowd and then greeted them in the name of the Lord. Soon his voice was drowned out by the roar of fighter-bomber jet engines.

"Do not be afraid, children of God," said Dr. Ben-Judah. "The enemy cannot harm you in this place of refuge to which God has delivered you."

The next thing Annie knew, flames licked at her feet, and at the feet of David and everyone else.

"What happened?" she cried, terrified.

"I don't know!" David sounded equally frightened.

"Be of good cheer, brothers and sisters in Christ." Micah's voice boomed out over the million-strong congregation. "The enemy has attacked us with two bombs and a missile, but the Lord has rendered them harmless."

After the crisis had passed, David and Annie joined a throng of believers who were waiting to meet Dr. Ben-Judah.

At last it was Annie's turn. She smiled nervously as she shook the rabbi's hand.

"It's very nice to meet you," she said shyly.

"Nine months from today, you shall deliver a daughter," the rabbi told Annie. "You shall name her 'Mercy', for the Lord has shown mercy to you both in delivering you from the lightning attack of the false prophet and the bullets of the enemy."

Annie was too stunned to reply.

"I would never have thought of it, but that _is _a lovely name," David remarked as they walked back to their tent hand in hand.

It was perhaps about a month and a half later that Annie began to sometimes throw up in the morning. She and David both knew why so they weren't really worried about it.

Annie got to know some of the other young women at Petra and soon discovered that several of them were also expectant mothers. To her dismay, she also learned that not everyone at Petra was as dedicated to the one true God as she and David were.

One day a new friend she'd made, a woman named Danielle, mentioned that she and her husband were leaving Petra to attend the service of a new teacher she'd heard about.

"But you _can't _leave Petra!" Annie protested. "We're under the protection of God here! If you go outside Petra, you're once again at the mercies of the enemy!"

"Oh, we'll be all right," Danielle told her. "It's just that we've heard so much about this new teacher, and we're very curious. If it turns out that the things we've heard about him aren't true, we'll return to Petra."

"But it might be too late then!" Annie exclaimed.

"I'm worried about Danielle," Annie told David later that evening. "She and Anthony are leaving the shelter of Petra to go and listen to some new teacher they've heard of. I tried to talk her out of it, but she wouldn't listen."

"That's all you can do, sweetheart." David patted his wife's hand comfortingly. "Everyone must make their own decision."

Annie had a bad dream about Danielle and Anthony that night, and woke up with her heart racing and a feeling of dread. She listened to David's gentle snoring beside her and cuddled more closely to him.


	9. Mercy

Anthony and Danielle never returned to Petra. What arrived instead was the news that they had both met horrible deaths at the hand of the false prophet they had gone to see.

"I warned her not to leave Petra," Annie said.

"I know you did," David told her. "That was all you could have done, sweetheart. Please try not to get too upset about it. You might hurt the baby."

To try to take her mind off what had happened to her friends, Annie went to visit her new friend Bethany and Bethany's newborn son, Gabriel.

"He's adorable!" Annie exclaimed when she saw the baby. "Can I hold him?"

"Sure." Bethany carefully placed little Gabriel into Annie's arms. He stirred slightly but then went back to sleep.

"What was it like?" Annie asked her friend. "Did it hurt really bad?"

"Not at first," Bethany replied. "The last part really hurt a lot, but it didn't last very long. Don't worry. You'll do fine," she said when she saw the expression of fear on Annie's face. "Are you hoping for a boy or a girl?"

"Dr. Ben-Judah told us that we would have a girl, and that we were to name her Mercy," Annie replied.

"Well, if Dr. Ben-Judah said it, you can be sure it will happen," Bethany told her.

News from outside Petra filtered in. The Bowl Judgements began. First the world's entire freshwater supply was turned to blood, and then the earth's surface temperature rose dramatically, scorching the followers of the Antichrist. Finally, a deep darkness fell over the entire kingdom of New Babylon.

In the meantime, Annie's pregnancy progressed normally. She was sitting quietly in the tent with David after the evening meal when she went into labor. David rushed her to the hospital in Petra, where Hannah examined her.

"You're definitely in labor, all right," Hannah told her. Annie undressed, and Hannah helped her into bed, then quickly started an IV and hooked her up to a fetal monitor.

The first few hours weren't that bad. Annie dozed off and on and chatted with David and Hannah. Around midnight, the contractions became stronger and more painful, and Annie began to feel frightened.

Hannah examined her again. "You're almost there, but not quite," she said. "Don't start pushing yet."

"It's going to be all right, hon," David encouraged his wife, gently touching her forehead with a damp washcloth. "Hang on just a little while longer."

Hannah examined Annie again a little while later. "Now you're ready!" she told her. "Go ahead and push!"

Annie groaned and pushed as hard as she could. Nothing seemed to happen, and she felt discouraged.

"You're doing fine, sweetheart," David said, touching the washcloth to her forehead again. "Just keep pushing."

Annie pushed a few more times.

"She has black hair just like you, honey!" David exclaimed after a few more pushes.

His words gave Annie renewed strength. She pushed mightily again, and the baby's head emerged. Another push and the shoulders were out, and after one more push, the baby's entire body slid into David's waiting hands.

"Here she is!" Hannah exclaimed joyfully. David cut the umbilical cord, and little Mercy wailed lustily and moved her arms and legs.

"She's beautiful, honey." Annie saw tears in David's eyes as he handed their daughter to her.

"She looks just like you," Annie replied. She was crying as well.

* * *

David and Annie were happily surprised when they received a visit from Dr. Ben-Judah a little while later.

"She's a beautiful child," Dr. Ben-Judah said as he held little Mercy in his arms. "The Lord has truly blessed you."

"We named her Mercy, like you said," Annie told him shyly.

"It suits her," Dr. Ben-Judah said. He prayed a short prayer over baby Mercy.

"Thank you for visiting us," David told him when he was finished.

"You're very welcome. May God bless you both," Dr. Ben-Judah said in parting.

Mercy cried, and Annie began to nurse her. Resting contentedly with her husband and daughter, Annie could almost forget that she was literally living in the last days of the existence of planet earth.


	10. The Coming Of Jesus

**Two And A Half Years Later**

"The Antichrist has assembled an army and is moving against Petra once again," David told Annie one day. "Dr. Ben-Judah and Rayford Steele have left Petra to join the resistance against the Unity army."

"But they're safe here!" Annie exclaimed. "Once they're beyond the walls of Petra, they're no longer under God's protection!"

David shook his head. "Rayford feels guilty about remaining within the safety of Petra while his Christian brethren are doing everything they can to stop Carpathia's progress, and as for Dr. Ben-Judah...Jerusalem has been attacked as well, Babe. Carpathia broke his seven-year pact with Israel. Jesus is returning very soon, and Dr. Ben-Judah wants to see as many of his fellow Jews come to the truth as possible, so that they can enter the Millennial Kingdom with us. I've half a mind to join him as well."

"No, David, please!" Annie begged, clinging to her husband. "Mercy and I need you here!"

David looked torn. "If not for the two of you, there's no question that I'd go."

"But how could they have gone through everything that's happened over the past seven years and still refuse to acknowledge that Jesus is God's Son?"

David sighed. "It's hard for a non-Jewish person to understand," he began. "But Jews have always seen Jesus as the Christian God, in whose name they've been persecuted and exterminated for centuries. For a traditional Jew, to accept Jesus as the Messiah and Son of God feels like a betrayal of his family, his culture, his people. That's the way it was for me at first. It took me a long time to reconcile the way I'd been raised with the truth."

"I never thought of it that way before," Annie said softly. "And what will become of those who still won't acknowledge Jesus as Messiah and Son of God?"

The stricken look in her husband's eyes told Annie all that she needed to know.

Over the next few days, Petra became more and more crowded as believers from all over the world fled there to escape persecution. Manna still fell from the sky twice a day, so there was plenty for everyone to eat.

One day a tremendous thunderstorm, one far worse than any Annie had ever experienced before, came.

"Mommy! I'm scared!" cried little Mercy, clinging to her mother.

"It's going to be all right," Annie told her. God won't let anything happen to us." She sat down in her rocking chair and began to rock and sing to the little girl. "Jesus loves me this I know, for the Bible tells me so..."

Fortunately, Mercy was already in bed asleep when the utter blackness came. It was darker than any ink Annie had ever seen. No moon, no stars, nothing. Just a blackness that was so intense that it was almost palpable.

"David?" For the first time in so long she couldn't even remember, Annie felt slightly apprehensive.

"I'm right here, Babe." Annie followed the sound of David's voice and soon touched his hand. "Isn't this exciting?" David sounded eager, even almost thrilled. "Surely Jesus will be here very soon now."

Hand in hand, David and Annie waited patiently for the next supernatural manifestation. It came a couple of hours after the onset of the darkness. There was a strange buzzing noise, followed by a flash of light. David ran to a window.

"Oh, honey, look!" he exclaimed. Annie came to stand right beside him, and they both gazed up into the night sky in awe. A thick, yellow, pulsating band of light stretched across the sky, intersected about a third of the way down by a shorter yellow band of about the same width.

"It's the cross of Christ!" Annie gasped. "Oh, David!" She felt her husband's arm encircle her waist as they both gazed at the wondrous sight, unable to tear their eyes away from it.

Dr. Chaim Rosenzweig led the entire population in the singing of hymns, and David and Annie joined in.

As the Unity army advanced on Petra, the clouds rolled back like a scroll, and the sky was suddenly bathed in a light that was just as utter and complete as the darkness preceding it had been, and there, seated upon a white horse, was Jesus.


	11. Meeting Jesus Personally

David took Annie's hand and led her outside, where the air was charged with excitement. When Jesus spoke, His voice was like the sound of many waters. That was the only way Annie knew to describe it. It seemed to wash over her like a refreshing spring, touching every fiber of her being intimately. "I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End, the Almighty."

As Jesus continued quoting passages from the Bible, David and Annie and the others watched as tens of thousands of Unity army soldiers fell dead, their bodies ripped open like those of gutted fish.

Suddenly Annie felt a warm, soft little hand take her own and looked down into her daughter's big brown eyes.

"Jesus, Mommy," said Mercy.

"That's right, sweetie," said Annie. "Jesus is here."

"Who are all those people behind him?" asked Mercy.

"Those are the saints," Annie replied.

"What are saints?"

"They're good people who died and went to heaven. Now they're coming back with Jesus to live on earth with him and us."

"Neato!"

David and Annie burst out laughing.

The entire group at Petra began to migrate toward the exits, David, Annie, and Mercy with them.

"Where are we goin', Mommy?" asked Mercy.

"We're following Jesus," Annie told her. "He's leading us to Jerusalem. That's where we're going to live from now on."

" 'rusalem?"

_"Je_rusalem." David smiled at his daughter. "In Hebrew that means 'City of Peace'."

"What's peace, Daddy?"

"That's where everybody gets along with each other and nobody fights. The Hebrew word for peace is 'shalom'."

"That's a nice word, Daddy."

"It sure is, sweetheart."

They and the others watched as Jesus descended from the sky. His horse's feet touched the ground of the plains to the west of Bozrah and He dismounted. He led the former inhabitants of Petra along until at last they entered the city of Jerusalem, where Jesus dismounted and stretched out His arms.

"Come to me, Annie," He said, gazing directly into Annie's eyes, His own full of love and compassion. Overcome with emotion, Annie went to Him, and He gathered her up into His arms as if she were a small child.

"My precious little one," He told her. "I've known you since you were conceived in your mother's womb. I was there while you were being raised in an atheistic household and taught to believe that I didn't exist. I was there when you wondered why so many people had disappeared, when you searched for answers. I rejoiced when you found the truth. I was there when you met David and fell in love. I was there when you were struck by lightning and everyone thought you'd died. I was there as you struggled to regain your memory. I was there when you and David married, and when your own precious little one was born. I have always loved you, Annie, and waited for the day you'd spend eternity with Me. And now you shall."

Annie felt as if she were floating on air as she returned to her place beside David and Mercy. Mercy's eyes were dancing with wonder.

"Jesus talked to me, Mommy!" the little girl shouted excitedly. "He knows me!"

"He talked to me, too!" David exclaimed. "Isn't that great?"

The atmosphere subtly changed, as the crowd parted to make way for the archangel Michael. With him were the Antichrist, Nicolae Carpathia, the False Prophet, Leon Fortunato, and the three demonic beings who'd been indwelt by frog-like spirits, Ashtaroth, Baal, and Cankerworm.


	12. Judgment Day

"Mommy, I'm scared," said Mercy, trying to hide behind her mother.

"It's all right, darling," said Annie. "Jesus is here, and he won't let anything happen to you."

Annie, David, and the other adults watched as the three creepy looking beings knelt before Jesus and begged forgiveness for their many wrongs. Solemnly, He shook His head, and a moment later, the three literally burst open, then caught fire and burned up.

Concerned for the effect on her small daughter of having witnessed such a gruesome scene, Annie looked down at Mercy and was astonished to see the little girl giggling hysterically.

"That was so funny, wasn't it, Mommy?" the little girl crowed. "Jesus turned the scary looking things into cute little bunny rabbits, and they hopped away!"

Relieved, Annie realized that Jesus, in his mercy, had altered the vision of those too young to comprehend what was going on so that they saw not a horrible sight, but an amusing one. Realizing that she didn't have to worry about shielding Mercy's eyes or trying to distract her, Annie's focus turned once again to the events at hand.

Next to stand before Jesus and be condemned were Leon and Nicolae. As David and Annie watched, fascinated, a hole opened up in the ground, the worst odor Annie had ever smelled emanating from it.

"Oh!" she gasped, holding her nose. "It smells like there must be about a thousand rotting corpses down there!"

"Sulfur," David said quietly. "Brimstone." A blue flame erupted twenty feet in the air from the gaping hole, and Annie felt the accompanying heat blister her face. Right away David's hand was grasping her own, holding it comfortingly. As they both watched, unable to tear their eyes away, the archangel Michael pushed Leon and Nicolae into the hole. It closed up after them, leaving the ground looking just as if there had never even been a hole there at all.

Yet the most spectacular event of all was yet to come, as the next being to be judged and sentenced was Satan himself. Satan morphed several times, becoming first a huge lion, then a dragon, and finally a beautiful, glowing angel. It was in this final state that Michael bound him in chains and tossed him into yet another hole in the earth, this one belching forth black smoke.

* * *

"What do we do now?" Annie asked her husband.

David shrugged. "Go home, I guess. That's what it looks like everyone else is doing."

"But where's 'home' now?"

"Good question." David watched the scattering crowd silently for a few minutes. "There seem to be plenty of vacant homes. I guess we can just take our pick."

They found one they liked, a red brick three-bedroom, two-bathroom with a patio and porch swing, garage, and swing set and tree house in the back.

"We never know when we might have a guest," David reasoned. "I'm also hoping we'll add to the family soon."

"I'm all for it." Annie smiled and kissed his lips.

"Mommy, I'm hungry," Mercy whined.

"Is manna still going to fall from the sky twice a day?" Annie asked her husband.

"I don't think so," David replied. "But look!" A young family was just now passing them. The father held a huge rack of beef, and the mother and children carried fruit and vegetables.

"Where did you get all that?" asked David.

"They're giving it away for free over there!" The woman pointed toward an open-air market.

"I wonder whether there's any left," Annie mused.

"We just returned from there, and there was still plenty when we left," the man told them.

"Well, what are we standing here talking for, then? Let's go!" David lifted Mercy up onto his shoulders, and he and Annie headed for the open-air market, from which delicious smells wafted.


	13. A New Home

David, Annie, and Mercy ate delicious meat, vegetables, and fruit until they could hold no more. Then they took a look around their new home.

"Whoever lived here before certainly kept it in good condition," said Annie.

"Mommy, where are the people who lived here before?" asked Mercy.

"They're either with Jesus waiting for the Millennium to start, or...don't worry, Mercy. Wherever they are, Jesus is taking care of them." To Annie's relief, Mercy seemed satisfied with that answer.

"I like my new room, Mommy," Mercy said later, when Annie was getting her ready for bed.

"It's a very nice room," Annie agreed. It was painted pink and had ruffled curtains at the window. It was obvious that another little girl had lived there before. Annie didn't want to think about what might have happened to her.

Annie got Mercy settled in bed and then went to the master bedroom, where David sat in bed reading. He looked up and smiled when she entered.

"Our first night together in a real house," she remarked as she slipped into bed and into his arms. Their dwelling in Petra, although clean and cozy, had been more of a temporary structure.

David held his wife close. "I can't wait to make love to you in our new bed in our new home."

"What happens next, David?" asked Annie.

"What do you mean?"

"Well, since the Antichrist, the False Prophet, and Satan are all gone, can't the people who died and went to heaven or were raptured come back to live on earth now?"

"You have to remember, hon, there are still unbelievers living on earth," David reminded her. "Those who took the mark or never decided one way or the other. Jesus must deal with them first."

"So there will be more death," she said softly.

"It's sad, I know," David said gently. "But they made their choice." He began to kiss her, and she melted under his caresses.

* * *

One morning soon afterwards, David and Annie awoke simultaneously with the identical conviction.

"Today's the day," said David.

"It is," Annie agreed.

They heard tiny footsteps outside their door, and Mercy appeared, her hair tousled from sleep, holding her favorite blanket. "Jesus talked to me. He wants me to come see him again."

"That's where we're going, sweetheart," David told her. "He talked to us too."

"Hurray!" shouted Mercy, jumping up and down.

"I don't know about the blanket," Annie mused.

"Oh, let her take it with her. I'm sure it'll be fine," David assured her.

The family joined the countless throngs who were all headed toward the Valley of Jehoshaphat. The sky was filled with many angelic beings, and on a throne in the Eternal City sat Jesus. He directed them to their left, His right.

Many people, including most of David and Annie's friends from Petra, also assembled on Jesus' right, but as David and Annie watched, an even larger group began to assemble on Jesus' left.

"Those are the bad people over there, aren't they, Mommy?" asked Mercy, pointing to the group on Jesus' left.

"Well...yes, they are," Annie told her.

"What is Jesus going to do to them?"

"Well..."

"He's going to send them to a place where they can never hurt anyone again," David told his daughter.

"You mean like jail, Daddy?"

"Yes, something like that."

"You always know exactly the right thing to tell her," Annie complemented her husband.

As soon as all the nonbelievers had gathered at Jesus' left, Jesus pronounced their sentence, and as before, the earth opened and swallowed them up. Also as before, the eyes of Mercy and all the other children present were shielded from the horrible sight.

When only the believers were left standing, Jesus summoned forth all the Old Testament saints. David and Annie watched, mesmerized, as Adam, Eve, Noah, Abraham, and many others came forward to receive honor and recognition. They knew that it would only be a matter of time before they were reunited with their own lost loved ones.


	14. Meeting Buck, Chloe, And Hattie

As soon as the Old Testament saints had come forward and been recognized, the Tribulation martyrs began to appear. David and Annie watched as Bruce Barnes, his secretary Loretta, Amanda Steele, Dr. Floyd Charles, T Delanty, Lukas Miklos and his wife, and Ken Ritz came forward. Mrs. Miklos, who had been guillotined, received a martyr's crown.

Next came Hattie Durham, who'd been burned alive by Leon Fortunato. Jesus placed a crystalline tiara on her head.

"Mommy, that's so pretty!" Mercy exclaimed.

"It is beautiful," Annie agreed.

Steve Plank appeared, followed by Albie, Buck and Chloe Williams, and Tsion Ben-Judah. Annie hadn't met all of them in person, of course, but she'd heard of them and their brave exploits.

After the last of the Tribulation martyrs had been recognized, Jesus blessed the entire group, and then everyone mingled, reuniting with loved ones.

David and Annie were thrilled to finally meet Buck and Chloe and their five-year-old son, Kenny.

"That must have been so hard for you, to know that you were about to die and that you'd never see your husband and child again in your natural body," Annie said to Chloe.

"It was terribly hard," Chloe agreed. "But on the day I died, I was able to lead six of my fellow prisoners to Christ. Now they're all here to share the Millennium as well. I do have to admit that I was afraid it would hurt, but as it turned out, I never even felt the blade at all. One minute I was lying with my head positioned inside the machine, and the next I was in heaven with my mother and brother."

"This is my Mommy, and that's my Daddy," Kenny said to Mercy. "They had to go away for a little while, but today I finally got to see them again."

"This is _my _Mommy and Daddy," Mercy replied. "We just moved into a new house. Maybe you could come over and play sometime."

"Can I, Mommy? Please?" Kenny asked Chloe.

"They're so cute together, aren't they?" laughed Chloe.

Later Annie met Hattie Durham for the first time.

"It took me a long time to come to the light," Hattie told her. "Before the rapture, I had a crush on Rayford and wanted to have an affair with him. I thought the feeling was mutual, but after the rapture, everything changed. Rayford stayed in my life, but now all he wanted to do was preach to me. That made me angry so I shut him out and ended up having an affair with Nicolae instead. I was so happy when I became pregnant. I thought that Nicolae loved me and wanted me to have his child. He tried to kill us both instead." Hattie looked bitter for just a moment, then smiled. "He did succeed in killing my baby. I hated him for that. It was a very long time before I was able to overcome my bitterness enough to accept Jesus' forgiveness and healing, but now I'm ever so glad I did."

Hattie's child had been restored to her completely healthy and whole, and now that child frolicked with Kenny and Mercy as the adults enjoyed getting to know each other.


	15. Epilogue

Annie and David and all their friends lived long, happy lives during the thousand years of the Millennium. After Mercy, they had nine more children: Elijah, Josiah, Rachel, Sarah, Jonathan, Tamar, Miriam, Joshua, and Tirzah. When Mercy was twenty years old, she married Kenny Bruce Williams, and they had many children of their own.

Finding their computer skills to now be largely obsolete, David and Annie worked primarily as farmers, planting and harvesting, herding and milking animals, and caring for the earth. David went hunting and fishing and tanned leather and carved items from wood. Annie churned butter and made preserves and sewed and did needlework. They raised their children to perform the same duties.

Most of all, they enjoyed associating with Biblical saints from throughout the ages, hearing their stories and learning what life had been like when they had been on earth. Since there was no crime, there were no locks on the doors, and since everyone was able to travel on foot supernaturally quickly, there were no cars, trains, or airplanes, therefore no pollution. There was no poverty, no cigarettes or drugs, no prostitution, no immoral actions of any kind. There were no illnesses or diseases or accidents. It was truly heaven on earth for many years.


End file.
